Buying supplies, Chicken Creek, Denali Highway
Chicken Creek, Denali Highway
Coffee break at Sinona Creek Trading Post, Denali Highway
View of glacier over lake, Denali Highway
View over lake, Denali Highway
Fireweed, Maclaren
Our group, the Awesome Foursome were on breakfast duty this morning which meant at 6.30 am unpacking the six or seven large eskies from the trailer and setting up for the group to partake of hot drinks and breakfast as well as to prepare lunch packs for the mid-day repast. Soon we were on our way and heading northeast in glorious sunshine and azure blue skies. The scenery was unimaginatively beautiful with hundreds of snow-capped mountain peaks reflected in mirror smooth tarns extending across the vast expanse of tundra. Despite this visual splendour the road was once again rocky and often quite uneven with significant stretches of subsidence where the permafrost underneath the road had partially melted and the road sunk. There were numerous opportunities for ‘photo-stops’ but after three photo stops Charlie was keen to get moving as we had to cover over 600 km today to reach Dawson City tonight. There was also some concern as to whether or not we’d get to the Canadian border crossing in time before it closed particularly if we had another puncture! The road then headed up onto a high plateau and facing east we could see several large volcanoes covered in snow. The volcanic and extreme seismic activity in this region is due to the clashing of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates. We then drove for an hour through an area where bush fires had destroyed the forest on both sides of the road as far as the eye could see. There must have been many thousands of square kilometres that now lay as a barren and blackened spectre. Bushfires may well be a ‘natural’ event but seeing this much destruction is very disconcerting. Eventually we came to a rest stop at a little gold mining town called Chicken. The locals were keen to tell us of gold exploits and fortunes made and lost by the miners. The sleepy township now consists of little more than a ‘trading post’ and a bar. We then climbed steeply with all tyres in tact to the Canadian border where passports and other official documents were perused by guards who initially appeared quite stern but soon mellowed under the influence of the combined Australian humour and goodwill. Eventually after a gruelling 12 hours travel we finally arrived in Dawson City, the epicentre to the Klondike goldrush of the 19th century. We’re staying in very, very basic cabins without lighting or water. The bunk beds are clean but there is no shower available here. The toilet block is a long way off and the odoriferous nature of this precinct is enough to prevent attendance unless desperation sets in. After setting up camp we crossed the Yukon River by ferryboat to the city centre which had to be seen to be believed! The whole township appears to be the movie set for a ‘wild-west’ movie with old-world buildings with fancy facades and strange shops advertising mortuary equipment and ladies of the night. The Dawson Casino is a popular night-spot as is a local bar nearby where the unusual tipple involves a highly alcoholic spirit shot from a glass including a severed human toe! One can only hope that the alcohol has destroyed any bacteria from this unexpected human appendage. After a pleasant meal in the JJJ Hotel we once again crossed the river to our one star cabin where prior to sleeping we had to limit our luggage to a single backpack in order to make the flight tomorrow to Inuvik.